It’s often said that if it were on its own, Brooklyn would be the fourth-largest city in the United States. But it’s actually only one borough out of the five that make up the city of New York. Before that, what we know as Brooklyn today wasn’t just one city: Many of Brooklyn’s iconic neighborhoods started off as their own villages, and the “city” of Brooklyn wouldn’t properly exist until 1834. But even then the area of Flatbush retained its independence until 1894, just four years before the entirety of…
